about meg mack we're posting it on our facebook page. it's also on instagram. at the beat with ari. where we post extras, stuff we didn't have time michael cohen pled guilty on the eight counts today. michael cohen was the president's fixer. >> if anybody else was in his mind going after his boss, he was going to fight back. and the keeper of his secrets. >> of all the individuals in trump's orbit that knew where the bodies were buried, if you will. michael cohen was at the top of the list. >> he swore he would do anything to protect the president. >> he told me woe take a bullet for the president. >> but an fbi raid changed everything. >> i heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys. frankly a real disgrace. >> investigators seized emails,

tax documents and business records. >> then another bombshell. a taped conversation with the president leaked to the media. >> well i'll have to pay him something. >> pay with cash. >> i got this. >> it is credible to believe that this was absolutely about hush money. >> he's one of the president's biggest problems. >> good or bad. michael cohen will be part of american history. >> when michael cohen arrived outside of federal courthouse in august 2018, observers took note of the cordial greeting he gave to fbi agents on hand. cohen didn't have the demeanor of a man about to plead guilty of violating several federal laws. >> donald trump's former private

lawyer, michael cohen accepted his own fate in a deal with prosecutors. >> the michael cohen case that's shaking the political and legal worlds tonight. >> michael cohen devoted more than a decade of his professional life to being the president's attorney and go-to fixer. he once said he would take a bullet for donald trump. >> i said with michael cohen and he told me he could barely walk by trump tower because it made him so sad. to look at a place where they spent a decade together working side by side. >> less than two years into the president's term, their once close relationship turned to mutual hostility. >> things have shifted. >> i think he couldn't walk by trump tower now because he would get so angry. >> cohen's plea deal followed months of controversy. the media reported extensively on cohen's alleged hush money payments to a porn star and a maybe model. whose claims of affairs with donald trump might have

torpedoed his presidential campaign. >> steve bannon suggested that trump's lawyer took care of 100 women or so during the presidential campaign. the president and his defenders deny the allegations. >> the president has addressed these directly and played very clear that none of these allegations are true. a conversation with trump seemed to prove the allegations that the president knew about the hush money payments for at least one of the women. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david. you know so that -- i'm going to do that right away and i've spoke ton allen weiselberg about how to set the whole thing up. with -- >> so what are we going to pay for this? >> funding. yes. >> michael cohen says that he's going to confer with allen weiselberg. allen weiselberg is the trump

organization's cfo, he's this legacy employee for the trump family. he was fred trump's accountant, donald's father's accountant. he's been with the trump family since the 1970s. >> at his plea deal hearing, cohen seemed to take direct aim at the president. >> when michael cohen went into court to plead guilty. he merely needed to say i paid money in order to conceal information that would be bad for the candidate i was working for. in order to influence the election. he went a step further and said that he did that at the direction of the president. which was an unnecessary statement by him. in that proceeding. so it is interesting that michael cohen is taking the opportunity, under oath in court, to implicate the president when that was neither something that the prosecutors alleged nor was something that he had to do. >> cohen's guilty pleas coincided almost to the hour with the conviction of another

member of the president's inner circle, in an entirely different court. >> paul manafort was convicted of filing false income tax returns, another foreign bank fraud charge. >> the day after that double bombshell, the president offered support to paul manafort on twitter. but not to michael cohen. >> i feel very badly for paul manafort and his wonderful family. unlike michael cohen he refused to break, make up stories in order to get a deal. he went even further and took sarcastic tone regarding his once loyal supporter. >> if anyone is looking for a good lawyer i would strongly suggest you don't retain the services of michael cohen. >> in the end, his arc, which was on a very upward trajectory with donald trump, was undone by the person who gave him that life line. donald trump himself.

>> few people who knew michael cohen as a young man who would predicted he would one day be embroiled in a presidential crisis. by all accounts cohen had a upper middle class childhood in long island. new york. he attended american university in the 1980s, as a brash real estate developer from new york was becoming a nationally known slek sleb rit. his first book, the art of the deal, was a best seller and inspired cohen to strive for an equally glamorous future. >> michael cohen has said as a teenager he admired donald trump. >> not only for his real estate acumen and seemed to admire his personality. his brashness, his approach to life. michael was drawn to him. >> after graduating in 1988, cohen dabbled in politics, volunteering on the presidential campaign of democrat michael dukakis. and attended law school at thomas m. cooley in michigan where classmates noted his big

ambitions. >> michael could handle stress, he was a bright guy and he had a good sense of humor and i liked that. >> you talk to a lot of people. very personable. >> i would say he was very motivated. he had his eye on the ball. no question about that. >> he was a talker and he was going to be a lawyer. he was going to go back and do big deals and be successful in new york city. >> cohen's legal career began in new york city, working for personal injury lawyer. >> in 1994, he married his childhood sweetheart, laura schusterman at the swanky pierre hotel. the marriage opened doors for cohen. >> michael got involved in business and personal dealings with people who his wife's family associated with. >> but some business associates skirted and broke the law, including his own father in law. >> he was convicted of tax fraud in the early '90s and he got probation. >> following in his father in

law's footsteps, cohen got involved with the taxi industry. >> michael was affiliated with a fleet of 200 cabs in new york city and owned some medallions in chicago. in about 2012 he was reporting about $90,000 a month in income from his taxi business. >> but two of his business associates and taxi medallions, simon gasher and the taxi king were convicted of multiple crimes. >> this is one of the vulnerabilities that michael cohen created for himself. by being in business with someone who got on the wrong side of the law. >> gene friedman like psychen checkered history. -- simon garber has a very checkered history. >> all of these tax fraud charges run related to michael cohen. but the company he keeps is noticeable. >> after running for new york city council in 2003 and losing

in a landslide, cohen turned his attention to real estate. attracting the attention of a man whose brash persona and glamorous lifestyle had made him a reality tv star. >> you're fired. >> donald trump who was enjoying fame on his hit show, "the apprentice." >> he bought a $1 million condo in the trump building and a $5 million in another trump building. where ivanka trump also lived. >> after cohen became treasurer on the board for trump world tower, he proved his value to donald trump for the first time. >> donald trump is impressed by the effort that michael cohen helped lead to oppose a tenants' movement to reorganize the building. >> took trump's side against the other owners in the building and trump was grateful. >> cohen's ambition was rewarded in 2006 when he became a lawyer for donald trump and shortly after, executive vice president of the trump organization.

michael cohen had found a seat at the table with the mogul he had long admired. >> it was a pretty alluring universe to be in trump tower. this is a man who idolized him for many years beforehand. it was a dream come true. >> coming up, michael cohen was a thug, an absolute street thug in the way that he went about defending donald trump and trying to intimidate people that they perceived to be crossing donald trump. (music throughout)

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in summer of 2015 donald trump descended an escalator in trump tower and set the nation on an unexpected course. >> i am officially running for president of the united states. and we are going to make our country great again.

>> the donald had flirted with presidential runs before. >> welcome to new hampshire. >> in 2011, he tested the waters with the full support and encouragement of the trump organization's most loyal aides. chief among them, attorney michael cohen. >> i watch you every night on tv. >> you better. >> for cohen it was the perfect way to merge his political ambitions with his business affairs. >> i think before the election, michael cohen was perhaps more political that donald trump was. this was someone who encouraged donald trump to run for president, had been involved in campaigns before. >> cohen flew to iowa in trump's private plane to meet with political operatives. >> michael cohen was the one who set up this website, should trump run? >> trump mentioned the website in a campaign voe. >> recently a group formed, a very independent group formed, should trump run.com.

>> that website triggered an investigation by the federal elections commission. >> the complaint alleged that michael cohen couldn't be independent of donald trump because he worked for donald trump. even though he said should trump run was independent of donald trump. >> but in 2011, the f.e.c. ruled in co-en's favor. for michael cohen, the win was another way of proving his loyalty. >> the way he initially described it to me was a father/son relationship. and when i asked him why he has blind loyalty, he always threw the question back to me as, would you do this for your father? >> the end of the day, the only people donald trump really considers as family are his own family. anyone who considers themself to be almost a trump family member, should really take a reality check. because they tend not to stay around very long. >> but michael cohen did stay and prove his willingness to fight for his boss by

aggressively attacking donald trump's enemies, real or perceived. >> a war of words between a beauty queen and organizers of the miss usa pageant. pennsylvania's representative claims the competition is rigged. >> just after the 2012 miss usa pageant, co-owned by donald trump, contestant sheena mown claimed the pageant's finalists were predetermined. >> i would like the truth to be made known. >> when moanen's father spoke with michael cohen about his daughter's claims, her father said cohen was belligerent. >> it's terrifying for someone like michael cohen working for someone like donald trump to get you on the phone and intimidate you. part of what a lawyer in that position is supposed to be doing is intimidate people and keep them away from the king. >> her allegations were not proven and donald trump won a judgment against mown for defamation. cohen acted as an attack dog against one of donald trump's most hated adversaries, the press. the news website the "daily beast" felt cohen's wrath.

>> the "daily beast" wrote a story about a deposition that trump's first wife had given in a case. in that deposition, she said she had been raped by trump. >> she withdrew the claim, saying she didn't mean it in a literal or criminal sense. but in 2015, when a daily beast reporter contacted the trump campaign for comment, michael cohen increasingly assertive in his role as fixer, responded viciously. >> and npr released the audio. >> i'm warning you, tread very [ bleep ] lightly. because what i'm going to do to you is going to be [ bleep ] disgusting. you understand me? >> michael cohen was a thug, he was a street thug in the way that he went about defending donald trump and trying to intimidate people that they perceived to be crossing donald trump. >> does michael curse, i'm going to go after you, i'm going to take you down. that's what people do in business. >> this is not the way that most attorneys operate.

but this is why he became a valued member of the trump organization. >> over the next few years, cohen would take his loyalty to a whole new level. >> he's a someone who is a pit bull. he never shies away from a fight. someone who never hesitates to defend donald trump and the trump family. >> and we will make america great again. >> michael cohen wasn't just helping with politics, while donald trump's 2016 presidential campaign gained momentum cohen sought real estate deals for his boss. during several efforts to develop a coveted trump megatower in moscow, trump turned to his friend, felix seder. >> michael cohen and felix seder jointly tried to propose a construction of a new trump tower in moscow during the presidential campaign and donald trump was aware of that effort.

>> it would be an alleged trip to meet with russian officials that earned cohen a chapter in the steele dossier. >> it's the famous report put together by the former british agent and was paid for by the hillary clinton campaign. there were a lot of allegations in there that have to do with whether the trump campaign colluded with russia. there's an unsubstantiated allegation that michael cohen was in prague and met with russians to discuss hacking of democrats. >> he continues to deny allegations that were made concerning him in the dossier. >> cohen's efforts to fulfill trump's dream to develop a trump megatower, which would have been the tallest building in russia never came through. but cohen continued to fight hard for his boss. showing his teeth after the first republican debate on fox news in 2016. during which megyn kelly challenged then-candidate trump. >> you've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs. slobs. and disgusting animals. your twitter account --

>> only rosie o'donnell. >> cohen struck back on twitter. >> he tweeted let's gut her about megyn kelly, who trump was critical of during the campaign. megyn kelly was upset about this. understandably so. >> very simple, if megyn kelly or anybody else was going to in his mind going after his boss, he was going to fight back. it's the kind of lawyer that trump would want. >> during the campaign cohen continually took on the media and one target in particular, cnn. >> you guys are down. it makes sense -- >> says who? >> polls, most of them. all of them? >> says who? >> while cohen's aggressive stance may have surprised some, nothing was as surprising as election night. >> here is the first projection in the trump column of decision 2016. >> trump had a lot more support

and a lot more states. among a lot more people than the polls detected. >> i just received a call from secretary clinton. >> as trump filled out the roles in his new administration michael cohen had reportedly hoped to become his chief of staff. but the loyal attorney was overlooked. >> there are people around the president who were not big fans of michael's so they encouraged him to keep his distance. but at the same time the russia investigation was heating up. michael cohen was testifying in front of the house and congress and so at the advice of counsel on both sides they weren't doing a lot of talking. >> michael cohen got a very rude awakening before trump even got to the white house. he felt shunted aside. he wasn't given a position in the white house. that he wanted. he was making his disappointment known about that i don't think trump or his family particularly cared. to a certain extent he disappeared off the radar screen

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michel cohen's role as a filmer for donald trump meant doing just that -- fixing trump's problems. >> of all the individuals in trump's orbit that knew where the bodies were buried, if you will, michael cohen was at the top of the list. >> days before the election, "the wall street journal" reported that ami, the parent company of the "national enquirer" entered into an agreement with a former "playboy" model, karen mcdougal she claimed a long-time affair with trump. ami purchased rights to mcdougal's story.

>> they paid her for life rights to the story and the story was not published before the election. >> mcdougal said she was silenced with a well-known tabloid tactic. a claim the media giant denied. >> a process called catch and kill. they pay you for the rights to the story and then they kill it. if she had told her story publicly, this would have been something that voters would have considered when they went to the polls. >> it's been alleged that michael cohen was somewhat of a puppet master, made aware of it and was involved in the negotiations in insuring that in fact the story was purchased and killed. >> the same article referenced another alleged affair with an adult film star named stephanie clifford, aka stormy daniels. she said she met donald trump at a july 2006 golf tournament in lake tahoe, as shown in this photograph from daniels' myspace page.

>> trump has denied these relationships. >> when the article was published, there was a lot of other news dominating the headlines. from the clinton email scandal to the now infamous "access hollywood" tape. >> grab them by the [ bleep ]. >> with daniels and mcdougal refusing to comment, the 2016 article got buried. but in january 2018, the same journal reporters broke another story about the alleged affairs. this time they revealed stormy daniels had been silenced just before the election by michael cohen. she signed a nondisclosure agreement at about the exact same time that the trump campaign was dealing with the fallout from that access hollywood tape. >> so michael showen sets up a shell company and the only purposes is to pay stormy daniels so she will not tell her story. she will not go public. >> he says without telling

donald trump he would pay $130,000 to stormy daniels so she would not speak about this story. >> daniels alleged the parent company of in touch magazine offered her $15,000 for her story in 2011. >> our understanding is that they reached out to mr. cohen for comment in advance of running the story. mr. cohen was able to convince them or threaten them that if they ran the story, there would be serious consequences. they decided not to proceed with publishing the story. >> then things took a darker turn. >> stormy daniels has alleged she was in a parking lot going to a fitness class and that some someone approached her in her car with her daughter in the back seat saying stop talking about donald trump. it would be a shame for your young daughter to grow up without her mother. >> this is something that terrified her. >> cohen denies he played any role in the alleged threat. >> he unequivocally denied it he said i've never threatened her. i've never spoken to her.

i've never emailed her, texted her, never seen her in person. i don't have any knowledge of any threats being made to her. but certainly i was not the one to make those threats. >> stormy daniels kept quiet before the election. helping trump avoid a huge scandal in the home stretch of the campaign. >> but after the election, the story was making headlines, not just about an affair, but about the cover-up. >> let me be very clear about what we know and what is in this article. it does not allege nonconsensual behavior. what it alleges is an effort to hide the behavior that allegedly occurred. >> armed with a new attorney, daniels wanted to take control of her own story and she started talking and suing. they filed a lawsuit saying the nda she signed was invalid because donald trump never signed it. >> for years mr. cohen has played by a different set of

rules or shall we say, no rules at all. >> suddenly the actions of candidate trump were catching up with president trump. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels. >> no. >> then why did mike michael cohen make the payment. >> you'd have to ask michael cohen. michael's my attorney, you'll have to ask michael. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> no, i don't know. >> just four days later, cohen would face a crisis of his own. >> we have just new report in, the fbi is reportedly raiding the office of president trump's long-time personal lawyer. >> investigators seized emails, tax documents and business records. >> bombs are dropping. >> april 9, michael cohen woke up in the hotel where he's been living. a dozen fbi agents knocked on his door, they did not break it

down and snatched the cell phone out of his hand and began a raid into his hotel room. >> simultaneously, the fbi searched cohen's apartment and his office at rockefeller center. >> the goal is to execute the search warrant simultaneously and to make their that nobody gets tipped off and evidence doesn't disappear. >> fbi agents seized a massive haul of information, documents, computer hard drives, phones and other devices and seized other crucial evidence. over 100 audio recordings. >> the president addressed the media about it in very stark terms, really went after the justice department. >> president trump interrupted a critical national security meeting to denounce robert mueller, the fbi and the raid on his lawyer's office. >> i just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys. a good man.

and it's a disgrace, it's a real disgrace. it's an attack on our country in a true sense, an attack on what we all stand for. >> hours later at 4:00 a.m. the president was clearly still enraged. firing off tweets about the cohen raid including attorney/client privilege is dead. >> attorney-client privilege is not a magic wand it's a carolinay defined privilege. anything you say to an attorney is not by definition privileged. and certainly not privileged if the attorney is helping you commit a crime or conceal a crime. >> cohen was not charged with anything at the time. but the fbi's seizures are sparked a firestorm and still burning for michael cohen. and for the president. >> fake news and the russian witch hunt. [phone ringing]

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after the surprise raids of michael cohen's home, hotel and office by the fbi in april. president trump said the operation showed the problems with the special counsel probe. >> i have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. >> but the search warrant didn't come from robert mueller's office in the first place it came from separate federal prosecutors in new york. >> it sounds like in mueller's

investigation he uncovered some evidence of wrongdoing by michael cohen and referred it to the southern district of new york because it didn't seem to fall neatly within the investigation of russian interference. >> the week after the raid, the federal inquiry into cohen's business practices broadened when a judge ordered cohen to disclose his roster of recent clients. besides trump it turned out there were only two more, fox host sean hannity and a prominent trump doaner. >> elliott brody is a big california financier and it's been reported that michael cohen helped arrange another hush money payment in this case to a "playboy" playmate who said she got pregnant by elliott broadie. >> broadie agreed to pay the woman $1.6 million. >> it's very similar to the mcdougal and daniels cases are,

a payment is made to keep embarrassing information out of the public eye. >> keith davidson who is an attorney who represented karen mcdougal and stormy daniels. mcdougal, daniels and bouchard have cases against davidson. saying that he was working in collusion with cohen. weeks after the fbi raid on his home and office, with the legal pressure on michael cohen building, he invoked his fifth amendment right in stormy daniels other lawsuit, the one against trump and michael cohen to invalidate her nda. the president was still defending cohen and himself amid speculation that campaign funds were used to pay off daniels. >> he did absolutely nothing wrong. there were no campaign funds going -- >> why is he pleading the fifth. >> because he's got other

things. he's got businesses. but i'm not involved. >> in that civil litigation with stormy daniels, cohen and trump would later fold. withdrawing their part of the suit and saying they wouldn't enforce the mda. as michael cohen's problems multiplied, many wondered how long his self-professed loyalty to donald trump would even last. >> mr. president, could michael cohen flip? >> everybody flips. >> what is he afraid michael cohen could flip over. >> in the following weeks, president trump turned to rudy giuliani to defend him in the court of public opinion. but then giuliani appeared to contradict the president's own statements claiming he knew nothing about payments to stormy daniels in a may 2 interview with sean hannity. >> the president repaid him. >> i didn't know that. he did? >> yup. >> intentionally or not. giuliani confirmed what many had alleged -- michael cohen did pay hush money to stormy daniels, and the president was fully

aware of the payment. >> the president's story and parroted by his television lawyer, rudy giuliani, has consistently been shifting. and it is no coincidence that they started shifting after the fbi searched michael cohen and now all of a sudden they started to say -- yes, the president knew and he reimbursed him. >> as the story dominated the media universe, stormy daniels made a surprise appearance on "saturday night live." >> stormy, this is michael cohen. are you alone? >> yes. >> and what are you wearing? >> excuse me? >> three days later, daniels' lawyer, michael avenatti dropped another bomb on cohen. this time allegations about his consulting business and one client, a private equity firm linked to a russian oligarch who had close ties to vladimir putin. nbc news has reviewed financial documents that appear to support

avenatti's claim that the firm paid cohen $500,000 consultant fee funneled through the exact same shell company used to pay off stormy daniels. >> as the summer wore on, the growing sense of legal jeopardy seemed to take its toll. cohen's already strained relationship with president trump further deteriorated. >> the relationship soured i believe first over money. who was going to pay for the lawyers. >> there was another problem lumg. the feds had seized more than one million pieces of potential evidence from cohen including an audio tape of the president. >> once they started the document sharing process, and seeing what cohen had, including those tapes, there was a sense of this guy could bring us down. >> cohen began complaining to friends he felt abandoned by the man he worked so hard to defend. >> this is man who is increasingly angry and upset. and isolated.

>> on june 20th, cohen resigned from his post as national deputy finance chairman at the republican national committee. and after years of putting his boss first, michael cohen sent a new message in an interview with abc news saying quote, my wife, my daughter, and my son have my first loyalty. and always will. i put family and country first. >> he did not want to be seen as the guy who was going to take a bullet for the president. he wanted to be seen as the guy who would perhaps take the president down. >> coming up -- a new strategy for cohen. >> cohen has hired attorney lanai davis, prominent democratic operative.

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for much of his professional life, michael cohen took pride in his role as donald trump's fixer and right-hand man. but in early july 2018, that all changed. >> i think when michael cohen starts scrubbing donald trump's personal attorney from his

resumé, and from the plaque on his door and from his business cards. he's saying i'm on my own now. and buyer behair. >> it was a moment where michael cohen was trying to reshape his image from this loyal fixer to a guy ready to tell the truth. >> cohen hired a new attorney to defend him in court and another to defend him in the media. >> nbc tonight confirms a report from the new york times that cohen has hired attorney lanny davis, a close clinton ally. >> lanie davis had previously represented harvey weinstein and bill clinton's scandal-plagued white house. >> lanie davis is known for being friendly with the clintons, president trump's arch nemesis and trump is obsessed with hillary clinton. so to pick someone like lanie davis to me is a way of sticking it to trump. in a very public way.

>> but when he's also doing is hiring a guy who is really comfortable on tv. who is as much a press agent as he is a lawyer. he's out there doing all the shows. talking about how michael cohen really isn't such a bad guy. >> davis made his debut as cohen's lawyer with a simple pledge about his new client. tweeting michael cohen said it's time for him to speak the trouth and put his family and country first, i'm glad to help him. days after taking the high road, davis attacked the president and giuliani on twitter writing trump giuliani next to the word truth is an oxymoron. >> there's a number of surrogates for president trump who were trying to shape a narrative about cohen that was damaging to his reputation and perhaps his credibility. >> co-en tried to reset his public image by meeting twice with a dedicated opponent of president trump, the reverend al sharpton.

>> he said to me, reverend al, would you pray with me? and we parade right there and i said are you going to be all right? and he said yeah i'm going to be all right for my kids. i think his state of mind is somewhere between very committed to trying to find a way to repair something for his family. and very much wanting to salvage some kind of refutation to the country. and very much wanting donald trump to understand he's not going to get away with just humiliating him. and belittling him. >> while cohen sought redemption in the public eye, his lawyer, lanny davis was ready for a fight. he turned to cnn to make a stunning revelation. >> bewee have one of the michael cohen tapes. >> and donald trump heard one of the most alarming sounds a president could ever hear -- his own voice in a secretly recorded conversation.

>> i have just spoke ton allen weiselberg about how to set the whole thing up with -- >> what do we got to pay -- >> funding, yes. >> that report appears to confirm that donald trump was in the loop about the september 2016 plan to use ami 0 to pay off karen mcdougal. >> so i'm all over that and i spoke to alan about it. when it comes to time for the financing, which will be -- >> what financing? >> we'll have to pay him something. >> pay with cash. >> no, no, no, no i got it. >> only michael cohen and donald trump know the entire substance of what they were talking about. but it's credible to believe that this was absolutely about hush money. and if it wasn't anything other than that, they wouldn't be so concerned about how they were going to pay it and the vehicles they were going to use to pay it. >> donald trump wanted to use cash to cover his tracks. >> everybody heard just now

donald trump say the word "cash" after michael cohen mentioned financing. mr. giuliani who knows from being u.s. attorney, the only people who use cash are drug dealers and mobsters.

>> there's a lot of parallel here. there are secretly recorded conversations. there's white house that is increasingly crushed under the weight of paranoia. is there going to be a tape as important in the trump russia probe. as there was in water gate. which helps ends nixons presidency. >> looking back at statements that nixon made he tried lt same tactics trump is using now. >> i have never heard or seen such outrageous, vicious reporting. >> the dishonest press. >> when you don't have the facts or the law on your side, which nixon didn't. that's what you do. you attack the investigators and discredit the investigation so peep won't believe what's being put before them. >> the tape maybe just the beginning. >> it raises the specker he has a lot more on trump.

and more that can be easily proven when you have the tapes you have the tapes. coming up. >> that bomb shell plea deal means the man who used to fix donald trumps problems, has now become one for the president. ♪ that's confident. but it's not kayak confident. kayak searches hundreds of travel and airline sites to find the best flights for us. so i'm more than confident. kayak. search one and done.

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michael cohen's personal jour nee has many elements of a shakespeare drama. a story of questionable morality. burning ambition. loyalty and betrayal. and retribution. the same man who told fox news this about donald trump. >> i'm going to do whatever it is that i can do to ensure that they leave him alone. he's a good man. >> would say this to abc news two years later. >> i will not be a punching bag part of anyone's defense strategy. i'm not a villain in any story. and won't allow others to depict me in that way. >> rudy giuliani the president's

attorney had previously described him in glowing terms. >> lt man is an honest, honorable lawyer. >> after the secret tape leak. giuliani began singing a different tune about cohen on cnn. >> back against the wall he'll lie like crazy. he lied all his life. >> the dramatic and dangerous event in the saga of michael cohen so far. that day he glad handed his way into the federal courthouse in manhattan. not as a lawyer. but a defendant about to admit guilt. >> former private lawyer michael cohen accepted his own fate in a deal with prosecutors. pleading guilty to serious crimes inlewd colluding paying hush money to stormy daniels to keep her quiet before the election. >> stunning as it was. his admission of guilt wasn't the biggest bomb shell that day. >> the president himself of course is described as the person who directed cohen's crimes. that continues to be the most important fall out from the guilty plea.

>> guilty to eight counts of financial crime. bank fraud and tax fraud. some of the crimes are connected to the stormy daniels hush money payment. days after the guilty plea, one of trumps most loyal supporters cut a deal of his own with federal prosecutors. >> another long time ally turned against him. national enquirer chairman david pecker has been granted immunity. >> it was a major development from a man who had been close friends with donald trump for years. and used the national enquirer to keep his secrets. >> david pecker as the head of the ami. is referenced in the information as someone who coordinated the concealment of the affair that donald trump allegedly had with karen mcdougal. there are different reasons the prosecutor may have decided that it was not worth prosecuting pecker and it's still to be

determined what information david pecker has beyond what we can read in the michael cohen criminal information. >> cohen's revelation quick will claimed another trump associate. and this one knew more about the president's private financial world than almost anyone alive. >> allen chief financial officer for the trump organization was granted immunity to help prosecutors in the case against the president's former lawyer. >> one wonders not only what allen knows about hush money payments. related to the campaign. but what other misconduct maybe out there. related to the president, or the trump organization. and when you go testify in a grand jury under oath, you have no choice but to tell the truth. that is an avenue that could be disaster for the president. and his children. because there has been reporting for years about some shady dealings that the trump organization has involved itself

in. we don't know the details but if anyone does know that, it's allen. >> cohen's plea in court was a devastating blow to a president already beset with legal and political problems. and it's cig cal na cohen had given up his last best hope ov escaping his fate. a presidential pardon from trump. >> even if he did pardon cohen. that wouldn't make the problems go away. it might make them get worse. this is starting to look like a problem that can't be solved. >> i will tell you from my reporting. cohen doesn't expect to get a pardon. >> he kind of matter of factually said, i can do time. i pled guilty. >> he surpassed the ambitions of college years. not in the way he would have wanted. his name is forever tied to donald trump. >> no matter what happens. michael cohen will be part of american history.

because of his association with the 45th president of the united states. >> and his words and deeds pass, present or future could change the course of an american presidency. it was very exciting. >> they met in vegas. a professional poker player. >> he said he was making good money at it. >> a former trapeze artist. she fell for him. but she didn't gamble on this. >> i could smell the odor of decay and blood. >> or this. >> at every turn there was another woman. >> married, with a child and women in multiple cities. >> what else is he capable of? >> capable of murder? he had an alibi.